Cluedo (Europe & Australia), Clue (North America), Detetive (Brazil), Mystery Game (Japan) and Cluedo (China) are all different names for the same game (hereafter refered to as Cluedo for simplicity). Cluedo is a game of deduction where you get to play detective by trying to work out whodunit, with what and where.

Who invented Cluedo, when and where?

Cluedo was invented by Anthony E. Pratt [E = Ernest], a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham in England. He invented the game in 1943 with the help of his wife (who designed the board). In 1948 he submitted it to Waddington's Games in Leeds, who published it for the first time in 1949. For more information, see the Patent.

What does the name "Cluedo" mean?

"Cluedo" is a pun on the traditional game "Ludo" (which is also Latin for "I play"); mixed with the word Clue for the murder
mystery element. So it's saying Murder Mystery Boardgame in one word. I believe Ludo is not well known in the USA, thus as the pun would not be understood, Parker Brothers probably decided to just call it Clue for marketing reasons.

What was the original name of the game?

It was originally named "Murder", but changed it's name to Cluedo / Clue before publication.

Who were the original suspects?

The original ten suspects were Doctor Black, Mr. Brown, Mr. Gold, The Rev. Mr. Green, Miss Grey, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet, Nurse White, Mrs. Silver and Colonel Yellow. These were changed to the infamous six - Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Reverend Green, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett and Mrs. Peacock when the game was published. For more information, see the Patent.

What were the original weapons?

The original nine weapons were: Axe , Shillelagh?(1), Bomb, Rope, Dagger, Pistol, Hypodermic Syringe, Poison and Poker. For more information, see the Patent.

This was a question posed in the Bechtel Engineering Christmas Quiz 2001. For all those that need the answer, I think the answer you want is "Hampshire". This is because the 2000 edition of the game has a newspaper on the front cover; on which it says: "The eminent anthropologist and man of letters Dr Black was found dead last night at his Hampshire home...".

Michael from The Art of Murder has done a lot of investigation into the house's existence. Check out his article here.

Where can I get a copy of the Cluedo TV Show / Will you copy your videos for me?

Tapes of the TV show used to be obtainable from Action Time for about £10 a
tape (which was sometimes an episode and sometime a series). HOWEVER, they
must have changed their policy or something as for the last few years
they've been quoting £100 a tape!

I'd love to do copies for people but I get a couple of emails a week from
people asking me to do so - and I just don't have the time to do a single
copy let alone hundreds! Thus I've had to make a rule of just saying no to
everyone. It's completely illegal to copy tapes anyway.

What happened to the other Clue Chronicles / Cluedo Chronicles after Fatal Illusion?

Clue(do) Chronicles was intended to be a three part series; but unfortunately the combination of Hasbro Interactive shutting down and EAI deciding that games were "not part of their core business"; meant that parts 2 and 3 weren't created and probably will never be.

This is the toughest part of the game as the lock can be very fiddly and requires perseverance to actually get it to work! I must assure you not to give up as the rest of the game makes the effort worthwhile!IMPORTANT NOTE: The answer to this depends on whether the date format of your edition of the game is DD/MM/YY (e.g. in the UK) or MM/DD/YY (e.g. in the USA). If you are not sure, then click the word Cluedo or Clue in the bottom right corner of the game (while looking at the lock) and it will give you a hint about how to solve it and what order you should use.
ANSWER (DD/MM/YY):

Turn clockwise (right) to 31 and stop.

Anti-clockwise (left) to 12 BUT go round past 31 the first time and then on the second time stop on 12.

Clockwise (right) to 38 and stop.

Click on the door handle.

ANSWER (MM/DD/YY):

Turn clockwise (right) to 12 and stop.

Counter-clockwise (left) to 31 BUT go round past 12 the first time and then on the second time stop on 31.

No. You can make an accusation during any of your turns - no matter where you playing piece is. But don't forget - if you are wrong - you lose the game!

Can I stay in a room for as long as I want to?

No. Excerpt taken from Cluedo 2000 rules : "You cannot stay in the same
room whilst trying to eliminate it from the investigation; you must
leave it and re-enter each time. You cannot leave and re-enter a room on
the same turn, even by a different door."

Can I only enter through a doorway where the door is open / ajar?

This seems to be a confusion that the images in the later versions of the board has
caused. You can go through any of the doorways (i.e. where there is no
wall / window) whether the door is open or shut.

Is landing infront of a doorway enough to enter a room?

No. You must have enough moves to actually enter the room (e.g. you need to roll at least a 4 to move from the Conservatory into the Ballroom).

Does a turn immediately end upon entering a room via a Secret Passage?

No. The phrase "If you use a secret passage, this constitutes your move for that turn."
is a little confusing, but "Move" is talking about physical movement and
"Turn" is your whole turn including suggestion and possibly accusation.

So, for example, if you start your turn in the Lounge, you may move through
the passage to the Conservatory and then either end your turn or make a
suggestion in the Conservatory. Note: You cannot continue moving outside of the
Conservatory until your next turn.

Do you have any tips on playing the game?

Make a note of every suggestion and deduce from it as much as possible. As each suggestion is made, go back to the previous suggestions and see if you can deduce more.

Choose the suspect that you suggest very carefully. If it's one of your opponents, you may help them by pulling them into a room that they don't know about. Conversely you could hinder them by dragging them away from a room they are trying to reach.

Choose you rooms carefully. Rooms are usually the hardest things to work out in the game so you may want to concentrate on this for the start of the game. Choose which room to go to by seeing which you can reach, which you have and which you have been shown.

Make good use of the corner rooms. If you own both, then you can flick back and forth between them each turn and quickly find out the suspect and weapon. If you are entering a corner room that you don't own for the first time, you may want to concentrate on suspect and weapon rather than room; as it will be easy to get back to the room to suggest again.

Hide two quiz questions (possibly Clue related or game related or just general) in every room of the house. People have to find the questions and answer them. The person with the most right answers wins.

Have a treasure hunt with clues to where the next clue is hidden until you find the treasure.

Where can I play "Murder At Boddy Mansion" / "Murder At Blackwell Grange"?

Since MSN's Zone.com stopped hosting the game, the only place that I believe you can play it is at Kali. However it's been many years since I heard about it being played there and they aren't in the list of games. Might be worth a try though.

Where can I play Cluedo / Clue online?

You used to be able to play a normal game of Cluedo / Clue at Games.com however I think they have shut it down. At the moment your only option is to play "Murder At Boddy Mansion" / "Murder At Blackwell Grange" at Kali (see above) - if that does still work.